From Runner to Race Coordinator: Naomi Seeley’s Journey with NLCA’s 5K
Naomi Seeley knows what it takes to run a 5K. She just never imagined that one day, she’d run one.
A lifelong runner and former collegiate track athlete, Naomi first participated in New Life Community Alliance’s Run to Change a Life 5K as a runner. Then, NLCA CEO Michael Bryant asked her to lend some of that experience behind the scenes.
“I started off just running, and then Michael looped me in to help organize it,” Naomi recalls. “I didn’t know I was going to be the lead.”
Five years later, Naomi continues to serve as Race Coordinator, a role she takes on entirely as a volunteer. Leading the 5K has brought together two things that have shaped much of her life: a love of running and a commitment to serving others.
How Naomi Found Her Stride
Naomi became an avid runner thanks, in part, to a rule in her childhood home: you had to do something. “You had to do a sport,” she recalls. “There was no such thing as going straight home after school.”
Naomi took that expectation seriously. She tried basketball, tennis, soccer, swimming – “I’ve tried every sport,” she says. Eventually, the choice was made to do track. Naomi found her stride in the mile and 400-meter hurdles, eventually earning a track scholarship to Johnson C. Smith University, an HBCU in Charlotte, North Carolina.
From Running NLCA’s 5K to Leading It
After college, Naomi moved to Atlanta, where her grandmother introduced her to New Life. More than two decades later, Naomi is still serving in multiple ways. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she delivered food to hotels housing people experiencing homelessness or needing a safe place to stay.
Her connection to NLCA’s 5K goes back to its earliest days. Naomi ran the original one-off race and has been involved in every iteration since, first as a runner and later behind the scenes. When the race went virtual during COVID, she helped send packages to participants so they could still take part.
As the 5K evolved, so did Naomi’s role. Michael asked her to help organize the race, and Naomi drew on her experience running 5Ks throughout Atlanta.
“If we want this to be a known 5K, we have to treat it like a real 5K,” she recalls telling Michael.
That meant navigating logistics, coordinating with public safety officials and finding ways to improve the participant experience. One of Naomi’s early observations was simple: runners deserved medals. “People are putting effort out there,” she says. “We need to give medals every year.”
Months of planning and problem-solving now go into creating an event that, as Naomi points out, lasts only about an hour and 15 minutes.
More Than 75 Minutes: The Impact of the Race
Making those 75 minutes happen is a team effort. Naomi credits a core group who have worked alongside her from the beginning: Loretta Shelton, Rebecca Lamar, Ron, and NLCA staff member Darline Byron.
“All the money that we raise goes back to the community,” Naomi says. That can mean helping someone get a haircut or take a shower, putting food on a family’s table, or supporting a child’s education. She also points to the lack of nearby grocery stores and the distance some South DeKalb residents must travel simply to shop for food. For Naomi, it comes down to “just giving people what they need; they shouldn’t have to struggle for it.”
One participant from last year brought that purpose to life. He used a wheelchair and wasn’t physically running, but he was determined to complete the 5K. With someone there to push him along the course, he did.
“That was really memorable,” Naomi recalls. “Someone might not be able to run, but they are willing to come out here and participate just to help us raise money to help someone else.”
For someone who has spent much of her life running, Naomi’s most memorable participant wasn’t running at all. What mattered was that he chose to show up.
The Goal: 5,000 Runners by 2030
Naomi doesn’t know how long she’ll be the person leading the Run to Change a Life 5K. But she knows where she’d like to see it go.
“My goal, I say by 2030, we need to have 5,000 runners at least,” she says. Naomi estimates that the largest turnout so far at around 700 participants. Reaching 5,000 would mean taking the race well beyond its current footprint and bringing many more people into the community NLCA is building around the event.
It’s an ambitious number, but she is ready to keep building toward it. Help Naomi get there.
